I attended Defcon 25
And won 3rd Place in the Full Beard Catagory of theDefCon Beard and Moustsache Competition.
Thanks to Annie V at Hair Cuttery for the trim before I left.

"I am not a leader.
I am a loner with people who happen towalk in the same direction as me." - The Cheshire Catalyst answering a question about his leadership position in the computer hacking communitty.

Then a buddy of mine sent me the following:“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”-John Quincy Adams

Welcome to my Home Page

The Cheshire Catalyst is Richard Cheshire, former editor of the TAP Newsletter. Folks either call him Chesh or Cheshire. People who don't know him, read his name tag and call him Richard. Only salesmen ever try to call him Dick. There are those who have known him for years who still call him Ozzie, however.

A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have... any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with. - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

OK, Kevin's Free. I'm happy for the fellow. But 2600 is now under fire from the Motion Picture Association of America, the MPAA. Yess, the people who "rate" motion pictures for the public. They are also "Keepers of the Intellectual Property" for DVD's. 2600 meerly pointed Hyperlinks at DVD Decoding Software, and got their ass sued. Fortunately, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has come to their financial aid in the matter, but 2600 needs our support.

Of course, if you'd just rather read something about him, there's the 1982 article from "Technology Illustrated" magazine. Don't be surprised if this clueless journalist gets the technical details wrong. He did the best he could do. (Oh, and I should warn you that there is just alittle hyperbole in use - Hell, I didn't reccognize myself in there!)

Here's a Definition of me found while doing an "ego scan" of "CheshireCatalyst" on Google.

In the John Travolta movie "Swordfish", his character talked about alot of movies, buthe never explained the title of the film itself.The reason that "Swordfish" is the ultimate password is based on the Marx Brothers movie "Horse Feathers" (1932) in which Chico says,

Hey, what'sa matter? You no understand English? You can't come in here unless you say "swordfish". Now, I give you one more guess.

A resolution passed by the Cartoonists Association of America states that any timea password is given in a comic in the newspaper, it shall be the word "Swordfish".Now you know why.

"He's not only cute, but he's fun in bed, too!", - Ms. L.F. of Astoria, NY

My own little FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Page for the Manual Impaired. These aren't really secrets, but since they're in the manual that no one reads, they might as well be. My motto, you know, is "Share The Knowledge".

Something I'mstill throwing together for friends who want to have their own web pages. It's still in-work, so let me know if there's something you still need explained. (There is also a web site full ofVarious Windows stuff tutorials)

You can't break the rules, but once you know what they are, you can abuse thehell out of them!

Wired Magazine has thisincredible article on undersea telecommunications cables! I expect that only Phone Phreaks and Telecomm Geeks will really get into it, though. A particularly geeky site visited by The Techno Tourist was the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum in Cornwall, England. This is where overseas cables come ashore for Great Britain.

If you're going to read the article,don't do it while on-line (it'smuch too long). Download it first, and save it to your disk. Then read it at your leisure. (please remember, this was put on this page in 1997, during the Dial-Up Era)

Click on the magazine cover to bring up the article.

Click on "File" in the menu bar (or hit ALT-F)

Within theFile menu, click on "SaveAs". (or hit the A key - the underlined letters are Clues)

Use the features in the "Save As" window to change directories (folders) and to rename the file what you'd like.

Universal Service was a concept that Theodore Vail brought to AT&T in the early 1900's. This page takes it into the next century.

The Center For Democracy and Technology is a non-profit public interest organization based in Washington, DC. CDT works for public policies that advance civil liberties and democratic values in new computer and communications technologies.

NARUC's Home Page, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Look here to find the Public Service Commission for your state. Have you ever considered playing with thepolitics of telecommunications? You can createlots more trouble this way thananything you think you could possibly do to The Network.

Network World magazine sent me a form for a free subscription, but I never have time to read it. Their web site is interesting, though.

The EFF Endangered Gizmo List, The Electronic Frontier Foundation is listing as "endangered, saved, or extinct", those gizmos and devices that have had the innovation knocked out of them by repressive laws and lawsuits.

This looks like a good place to drop in some links for some Phreaks & Hackers of my acquaintence.

Local Calling GuideThis site contains local calling, area code, and prefix information for Canada, the United States of America, and other countries which are part of the North American Numbering Plan.

PGP, Pretty Good Privacy. A good method for maintaining privacy, and authentication of messages. There's also a good site with lots ofpointers to crypto stuff (if you don't mind getting info from the Defense Information Systems Agency).

Named Links

When theBeyond HOPE hackers conference was still on this home page, Named Links would take you directly to the part of the page without wasting your time to find them. If you've followed a named link from somewhere, and gotten here, please click on the Key Word below to get you where you now need to go to. Please e-mail me atCheshire@2600.Com if you think this was a good or a bad idea. I really need the feedback. Thanx!

If the named link that got you here isn't listed below, it has "timed-out". My apologies, but what took you so long?:-)> The "Blue Balls" (above - asterisks on non-graphic browsers) have the named links connected to them. That's what got you here. Feel free to copy the technique.

Soccer Has Reached America!

But let's play the world's game by the world's rules.

In my identity as a mild-mannered gas cylindertester for a small obscure Space Shuttle subcontractor (I don't work there any more - I'm retired now), I was a Volunteer at theOrlando venue of World Cup 94, the world's most prestegious soccer match.I'm a computer geek, not a sports jock, but I support socccer as a gametherest of the world loves, that America is just getting into. It is also agame that we Americans are not trying to shove down the world's throat! Ilike that. ;-)>

World Cup 2010 Results, formatted for Mobile Phone Web Browsers.I was a volunteer radio operator for World Cup 94 at the Orlando Venue.

What? You haven't figured out why I consider International Sports to bepolitical in nature? e-mail me at Cheshire@2600.Com, and I'll be happy to discuss it.

This web page has been lovingly hand crafted using only the finest pure ASCII characters (no "web page creation" software has been used). While this page has been wordsmithed to provide you with unfettered access to legible and cogent information, your browser may vary.Standard Disclaimer applies.

While this page will be perfectly viewable on Notscape, and Microsoft Internet Expletive, it willalso be readable onLynx, the non-graphic web browser for people using text-only terminals in Public Libraries, terminals with speech synthesizers for the blind, and users accessing the web via Telnet.